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Tomatoes, German

A sweetened tomato preserve flavored with allspice, cloves, mace, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomatoes, German

Ingredients

Directions

Make the relish

  1. In a glass or porcelain-lined vessel, combine the tomatoes and brown sugar.

  2. Stew the mixture until the syrup thickens.

  3. Add the pounded allspice, cloves, and mace, and stew for a few more minutes.

  4. Remove the tomatoes and stir in the vinegar.

Jar and rest

  1. Pour the mixture into a jar and let it cool before sealing tightly.

  2. Allow to sit for 2 to 3 weeks before using.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Tomato + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the relish and release juice that mixes with the sugar into a syrup.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the relish and thickens into a syrup as the mixture stews, adding body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness and helps preserve the relish.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor to the relish.
Cloves
Adds strong, warm aromatic flavor that balances the sweet tomato base.

The step that matters

Stew until the syrup thickens. Cooking the tomatoes and sugar long enough lets the syrup reduce and thicken. Stopping early leaves a thin relish, while overcooking can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, allspice, clove, mace, vinegar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, allspice, clove, mace, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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